Published: April 10, 2008 10:37 pm         

MADD director sees new law as ‘enormous improvement’

Aggravated DUI major component of legislation

CHARLESTON — Now comes the hard part for Mothers Against Drunk Driving — spreading the gospel of a new West Virginia law that tightens penalties on inebriants caught behind the wheel.

Gov. Joe Manchin signed the landmark bill in a special ceremony Thursday, culminating a yearlong effort by MADD in the state.

A major component adds the new offense of aggravated DUI against drivers with a blood alcohol content of .15 or higher, specifying mandatory jail time of two days to six months.

A second provision allows anyone with a BAC from .08 to .14 to exercise the option of installing an alcohol ignition device known as the Interlock, cutting in half the current 30-day license suspension.

And the law seeks to relieve counties of some regional jail costs by eliminating the mandatory 24-hour lockup for drunken drivers below the .15 level.

“It’s an enormous improvement,” national MADD director Glynn Birch of Dallas said before the ceremony.

Birch said the new law would “absolutely” lower the number of accidents involving drunken motorists.

In New Mexico, he noted, after a similar law was encoded, deaths fell by 20 percent the first two years.

“We’re expecting similar numbers here in West Virginia,” he said.

Donna Hawkins, state MADD director, toiled on the bill more than a year, anchoring an ad hoc committee that worked in tandem with a legislative panel, headed by Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha.

“It’s a big day for us, a historic day,” Hawkins said. “It was a combination of a lot of effort from a lot of people, the task force and legislators, to make this a reality. Now the tough part begins. We need to get the word out. We need to get our drunk drivers off the road.”

Hawkins envisions a massive publicity effort reaching across the entire state to inform motorists and law enforcement officials.

“We need strong enforcement,” the Charles-ton resident said. “We need to send a message that drinking and driving will not be tolerated in West Virginia. We need to educate everyone. Passing this legislation was the first step. Now comes the part of educating and telling people don’t drink and drive.”

Drunken motorists were blamed for 129 deaths in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available.

Patti Hamilton, director of the West Virginia Association of Counties, applauded the bill, saying it has the potential to save counties thousands of dollars in regional jail costs, provided there’s no dramatic surge in arrests under the new aggravated offense.

“We’re thinking about some public service meetings to let people know the law for .15 has changed,” she said. “We don’t want that to wipe out the savings on the other end.”

Manchin hailed the legislation as “a good bill” that would get drunks off the highways and “hopefully keep them out of jails, too.”

“We can balance protecting our citizens from DUI offenders while controlling the costs of incarceration, which will help our counties struggling with regional jail costs,” he said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com